ARIA DE MUSTANG

part 2 of NOUVELLE BURLESQUE BRUTAL

The striptease is accompanied by the history of exploitation of women, in terms of a patriarchal economy as well as a rigid body image and regime of the gaze. Since the early 1990s, "New Burlesque", following from the theater forms of the 1930s, has met this genre with humor and self awareness and attempted to re-open the female body as a self-determined field of attraction. The sexual charge is, in this case, supplemented with a dance-like game of poses and gestures that does not aim at a purely male gaze, and propagates alternative body images.

With ARIA DE MUSTANG, the second part of a planned trilogy, Katrina Daschner makes a very clear reference to this genre, but at the same time expands it with queer-lesbian, and also sadomasochistic signs and images, which have no place in common hetero-normative representational systems. Right from the start, Daschner clarifies the context that she positions herself in, that is, which eyes and ears she exposes herself to with her performance. Proponents working in Vienna´s queer-lesbian art and culture scene dressed in riding outfits frame the glamorous sparkling setting like a Greek chorus, and function as roaring commentators who conclude the video.

The choreography of the performance, in which Daschner and two lovers (all in fetish costumes) enjoy themselves, runs along a multiply repeating line of a song from the local music group Bonanza Jellybean: "I know, that I am gorgeous, that is nothing new. When I go to bed tonight it will definitely not be with you." Despite the unambiguous rejection in the lyrics, a direct and autonomous gaze into the camera maintaining steady contact with the audience remains the defining gesture of both the performers as well as the chorus. Even when a pornographic scene marks the end of the performance, the actresses do not lower their eyes in shame, instead, their expressions remain controlled: A queering of the existing situation that stages a coquettish flirt with the camera.

(Dietmar Schwärzler)

Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt


The intentions of the distinguished lady in the riding stables are well out of order. In the face of well-formed mount a gorgeous "romp and stomp" between horse and rider soon begins in which the lady of the house slowly but surely loses her lovely dressage outfit.

(Barbara Reumüller)